I'm cutting a muslin of M6698: (skirt portion)
...As a starting point for this:

It looks really promising so far, but you can see that one big difference is that the McCall skirt is open/shorter in the front, while the Valkyrie's skirt is shorter on the side/hip. Because of the cut of the skirt pieces, I'm guessing this isn't going to be a case where I can simply sew it up and wear it sideways.

You can see from the line drawing that the skirt tiers are all either seamed up the back or cut on CB fold. The top tier is one piece; the bottom layer is 4 (two backs, two side-fronts), and I think the middle layer is 2. I'm wondering if it might not be so attractive to have that major seam running down the side instead of the back.

Does anyone have suggestions for what I'm going to need to take into account (angle of waistline, different fullness/curves in seat vs hip vs abdomen, etc) or how to adjust the shape (or grainline?!) for rotating everything a quarter turn to the left? I'm sure some of this will become clear when I get the mockup up there on my dress form... but you guys are really good at moving shapes around in your head and predicting what pitfalls might arise!

If it were me, I'd attempt to just rotate the skirt and then put the zipper on the side. I don't think a side seam would look bad. Most skirts/dresses have them. If it really bothers you, you could eliminate some of them if your fabric is big enough. As for "angle of waistline, different fullness/curves in seat vs hip vs abdomen, etc", I would guess that the original pattern didn't adjust for those either. The founces are so full they're probably based on circular skirt with asymmetrical hem lengths. But you could just check the pattern pieces to make sure. Do the waistlines look like they're circular arcs or something else? If they are circular arc, then you can rotate them with abandon.

Quote: PetitePear Do the waistlines look like they're circular arcs or something else? If they are circular arc, then you can rotate them with abandon.

Thanks, PP! This is actually one thing I thought of--I don't *think* they're circular, b/c the line drawing doesn't show them attaching to the bodice with any gathers, pleats, or darts... but it didn't occur to me to line them all up beforehand and check for sure. It would be easy enough to redraw that curve, which will simultaneously make it easier to draft a waistband, which I need anyway since I'm just making a skirt.

I also looked a little closer at the inspiration costume, and the short part isn't all the way to the side; it's sort of over one leg, so I don't have to rotate things as far as I was first anticipating.

Just an observation, but before you start cutting, it looks, although it's hard to tell, that the inspiration garment is shorter than the pattern, also the tiers are spaced closer together. If it were me, I'd make the adjustments to the pattern, trimming bias hems can be challenging once the skirt is made up.

You also might want to get the widest fabric possible to avoid having to piece the skirt. If the waist line has a wide arc, you might run into that.

I would love to see the top of that inspiration garment in person to see how they made it.

I don't know if this will help but when I did my daughters wedding dress which was a circle it was actually an oval; the waist flattened out for 2" at the center front and back which when I thought about it made sense people are not usually circular and it also gives that flat front with the fulness on either side which I see in the picture.

The Valkyrie's skirt was designed on a full-front skirt sloper. We are mostly used to working with patterns that are cut with the front line on a fold of the fabric, because most of the clothing we make is symmetrical from the front. Try tracing your front skirt pattern on paper, then flipping the pattern over on the fold line and tracing out the other side. Now that you have a full-front pattern, redraw the hemline to rise to its fullest height to left of center. Lay out your fabric in a single layer because you are cutting the full front with no fold line. Keep your grain-line going straight up and down if your pattern was designed to be cut on a fold. Remember to adjust the hemline of the back left skirt to match, either using the same tracing and laying out a single layer method or (simpler) you can just cut it normally and trim the left side to length when you get to the stitching phase.
HTH

------Measure twice, cut once. While this saying is useful in many ways, I have no qualms about editing my posts.

Big Goal for 2015: to be able to say "Oh, I guess it's time to take this dress in...again!"

To me it looks like there might be some sort of pickup near the left hip bone. There seams to be more fullness on that side. I would do a muslin with a level hem on each tier and then do a pickup with all 3 layers. Kind of saloon/dance hall girl. You can always start trimming the layers shorter. I would also keep the layers seperated at seam lines, funny things can happen when you join the seam lines. I would also keep the zipper ar the CB. Either sew all 3 layers together just the length of the zipper OR only apply the zipper to bottom layer. Make narrow hems on the openings the top 2 layers and leave them open or add hooks and eyes.
Could this possibly be made with a sewn on elastic waistband, then you wouldn't have to deal with the zipper.

* Advertising and soliciting is strictly prohibited on PatternReview.com. If you find a post which is not in agreement with our Terms and Conditions, please click on the Report Post button to report it.